Alan Caruba's blog is a daily look at events, personalities, and issues from an independent point of view. Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2015. With attribution, posts may be shared. A permission request is welcome. Email acaruba@aol.com.

Monday, June 10, 2013

It's a Matter of Distrust

By Alan
Caruba

“If the
people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to
protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.” – Barack Obama,
August 28, 2006

I am
trying to think of a time when the federal government was distrusted more. The
era leading up to the Civil War surely comes to mind. The deep enmity between
the northern and southern states over the issue of slavery pushed the latter
into secession. In retrospect, only war could have settled it.

The
protests against the Vietnam War went on for years, but it was not an issue of
trust, but of policy. They forced Lyndon Johnson to forego running for office
again and continued through Nixon’s first term. It was Watergate, however, that
raised the issue of trust and it was focused on the White House.

Nor can I
recall a time when a matrix of revelations about government, i.e. executive
branch, policies and actions, came together as they have regarding the use of
the IRS to target conservative and other groups to make fund-raising difficult
or impossible. Add to that providing their information to other groups opposing
them is nothing less than criminal.

The
actions of the Department of Justice to secure access to the phone records of
Fox News reporter James Rosen involved deceiving a court into issuing a
warrant. The seizure of the phone records of Associated Press editors and
reporters was little more than intimidation in the name of finding a leak. An
earlier DOJ scandal, “Fast and Furious”, an idiotic gun-running scheme to
Mexican drug cartels, was hushed up with an executive order. If you can’t trust
the DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, who can you trust?

Now, the
leak by a former National Security Agency contractor employee has raised Fourth
Amendment issues concerning the greatest data-gathering programs in the history
of the world. It has made strange bedfellows of liberals and conservatives,
both concerned about the implications of a government that can know everything
about one’s personal communications.

It strikes
me that, while the National Security Agency can vacuum up mindboggling amounts
of data, the CIA is focused to spotting foreign dangers, the FBI is searching
for terrorists, and the TSA is seizing laptops of iphones because some agent
had a “hunch” about their owners, it proved incapable of identifying and
preventing the Boston Marathon bombers.

In the
aftermath of 9/11 a commission concluded that various intelligence and law
enforcement agencies needed to actually share
their information.

I have
always had a sense of reassurance that these agencies and others such as those
responsible for border control are made up of good people seriously trying to
protect the rest of us. Those engaged in counter-intelligence need years to
develop their skills and instincts. Those engaged in law enforcement know the
limits and requirements for its exercise.

So the
problem or threat of any corruption of their duties has to come from the very
top of government where policies—schemes—are set in motion.

This is
what lies at the heart of the mysteries surrounding the assassination of our
U.S. Ambassador in Libya and the cover-up that ensued after the September 12,
2012 attack. To date, those Americans on the ground, some working for the CIA,
have not been heard from with the exception of some State Department employees
who delivered devastating testimony that almost instantly disappeared from
further news coverage.

Even more troubling is the way the former UN Ambassador
who was sent out to provide a bogus story about a video has been promoted to
the position of the President’s National Security Advisor. Replacing her at the
UN is an ambassador with a well-documented antipathy to Israel in particular
and Jews in general.

What
complicates all this for me is the knowledge that America has real enemies.

Despite
the President’s assertion that al Qaeda is on the ropes, the facts on the
ground suggest it is expanding throughout the Middle East. The Iranian proxy,
Hezbollah, has not only taken control of Lebanon, but is actively engaged in
support of the Syrian regime. It has the support of both Russia and Iran, and
Iran is still in hot pursuit of securing its own nuclear weapons. The Chinese
are engaged in a massive espionage program as, no doubt, the Russians as well.

So, yes, I
want a vigorous, effective intelligence gathering and law enforcement community
of U.S. agencies, but I worry that those who currently hold political power in
the White House and the Senate do not have America’s interest in mind.

I worry
that a generation that has passed through our government schools have not been
taught the true history of the nation or an understanding of capitalism versus
communism. I worry that they have been indoctrinated to believe that America is
to blame for the attacks that have occurred and that conservative organizations
seeking to uphold the Constitution and traditional values are the enemy. And
that many of this generation work for the federal government.

The loss
of confidence—of trust—in our nation’s institutions is evident. Barely six
percent of likely voters have any confidence in Congress to represent their
views.

A
Rasmussen poll result announced on Monday says that, despite Obama’s
reassurances, fully 68% of likely voters think that the government is listening
to their conversations. A poll on Sunday indicated that 59% oppose the government’s
secret collecting of phone records.

While the
revelations about government scandals continue, there will be a continuing
erosion of trust. At some point it will reach critical mass and one can only
hope the forthcoming 2014 midterm elections will set in motion a reversal and
permit power in both the Senate and House to be returned to true conservatives.

We can
survive a President who has foisted Obamacare on us, who has weakened our
nation’s position in the world, and who has failed to put our economy on a path
to renewed prosperity.

All that invasion of privacy, and they didn't stop the Boston bombs. That is a definitive indictment of the intelligence agencies' activities. They have been not just criminal, but criminally incompetent--probably because they have been suborned by those with a merely political agenda, rather than to their core responsibility to protect us.

"I am trying to think of a time when the federal government was distrusted more. The era leading up to the Civil War surely comes to mind. The deep enmity between the northern and southern states over the issue of slavery pushed the latter into secession. In retrospect, only war could have settled it."

Since 2005, I've said that the division between the Right and Left in America can only be settled, at the end of the day, in the same manner as the issue of slavery was determined.

The only question is will Americans rise in armed revolt against their federal government?

This is the only means of resolution in favor of liberty, as we live in the era of stolen elections.

I will be 75 years old this year and never in my lifetime have I seen an administration so involved in corruption, incompetence, divisiveness, and when ever questioned will use the race card. Even the EPA has leaked private data on farmers to green energy radicals. It appears to me that every agency not just the IRS is involved in promoting Obamas agenda and "targeting" anyone and everyone who may have a different opinion. Looks to me like "Rules for Radicals" is the Obama Doctrine.

About Me

I am and have been for a long time a writer by profession. I have several books to my credit and my daily column, "Warning Signs", is disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites, as well as blogs. In addition, I am a longtime book reviewer and have a blog offering a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction.